fedora won't boot or let me login

i am running fc1

x froze on me, & i couldn't do anything, so i did a hard reboot.

when it came on, it went up until the part where it says all the things it is starting / loading... but then it skips all of that & goes to a command line that says: "(none) login:" so i try my login & pwd, but it doesn't work... then i try root & the root password, but that still says:

login(pam_unix)[18] authentication falilure; logname=LOGIN uid=0 euid=0 tty=tty2 ruser= rhost= user=root
Login incorrect

please help, thanks,
andrew

go to single user mode and change the password and create a user account
u can go to the single user mode by appending single to the boot options in grub as u r using fedora

ok, i know how to go to single from grub, but then what do i do

how can i change the pwd? & more importantly, what can i check to see why it won't boot right... because after i select the kernel, it doesn't load any of the things it's supposed to, & it goes straight to a console that says "(none) login:"

thanks,
andrew

so when i booted into runlevel 1, it said:

INIT: Version 2.85 booting
INIT: cannot execute "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit"
INIT: entering runlevel: 1
INIT: cannot execute "/etc/rc.d/rc"
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel

& then it stays there, & i can't do anything..

any ideas??

I would try booting into rescue mode from the CD. Then you should at least be able to get access to the filesystem.

You may know already, but to do this, boot from your CD and type in 'linux rescue' at the prompt.

HIH,
Chad

if i do that, then what should i do to fix this problem... i am pretty new to this, so even if i had access to the file system, i wouldn't know what to do...

thanks,
andrew

boot with the 1st cd
type linux rescue just before it promts u whether to start anaconda.
then type chmod /mnt/sysimage
then it will take u to the super user mode
now try to fix the kernel......and then create the useraccounts

what do you mean fix the kernel... i don't really understand what's wrong with it. can i just yum-update, because i know there is a newer kernel upgrade? otherwise, what do i need to fix?

thanks,
andrew

you can try using yum...
but if u have the source code as rpm of the previous version on the system then try updating with the same..
if u dont then boot as i had said previously and then take out the cd insert a cd which has the source rpm..
install it and then try booting
good luck

P.S. make backup immediately...coz u might require to reinstall if it doesnt work...ur init is not running..

ok, thanks, i'll give that a shot.

thanks,
andrew

so i did that, but i couldn't get much done... i don't have much data on the drive, so i was going to burn 2 cd's as backup, & then install fc2. i create the iso's, & do cd record, but it says there are no available cdr drives... so i do "chroot /mnt/sysimage" to be the root so maybe that will work, but it says "chroot: cannot execute /bin/sh: permission denied"

so i tried to ssh to this machine from my other computer, but there are no functioning user accounts to ssh with. so i try to create a user in recovery, but it says "useradd: error opening group file"

so i really don't care about salvaging this installation of fedora anymore, but i need a way to get this data off... via ssh/cd/anything...

please help. thanks,
andrew

so i went to /mnt/sysimage/bin & changed the permissions on bash to 555 from 554, & then i managed to login to the root filesystem, & basically just browsed around... i don't recall changing anything, except the passwords, & now it boots ok... & everything seems to be working... i don't understand why...but anyway...

thanks for the help you guys,
andrew